Need for criteria for the diagnosis and severity assessment of acute cholangitis and cholecystitis: Tokyo Guidelines

The Tokyo Guidelines formulate clinical guidance for healthcare providers regarding the diagnosis, severity assessment, and treatment of acute cholangitis and acute cholecystitis. The Guidelines were developed through a comprehensive literature search and selection of evidence. Recommendations were based on the strength and quality of evidence. Expert consensus opinion was used to enhance or formulate important areas where data were insufficient. A working group, composed of gastroenterologists and surgeons with expertise in biliary tract surgery, supplemented with physicians in critical care medicine, epidemiology, and laboratory medicine, was selected to formulate draft guidelines. Several other groups (including members of the Japanese Society for Abdominal Emergency Medicine, the Japan Biliary Association, and the Japanese Society of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery) have reviewed and revised the draft guidelines. To build a global consensus on the management of acute biliary infection, an international expert panel, representing experts in this area, was established. Between April 1 and 2, 2006, an International Consensus Meeting on acute biliary infections was held in Tokyo. A consensus was determined based on best available scientific evidence and discussion by the panel of experts. This report describes the highlights of the Tokyo International Consensus Meeting in 2006. Some important areas focused on at the meeting include proposals for internationally accepted diagnostic criteria and severity assessment for both clinical and research purposes

Background: Tokyo Guidelines for the management of acute cholangitis and cholecystitis

There are no evidence-based-criteria for the diagnosis, severity assessment, of treatment of acute cholecysitis or acute cholangitis. For example, the full complement of symptoms and signs described as Charcot’s triad and as Reynolds’ pentad are infrequent and as such do not really assist the clinician with planning management strategies. In view of these factors, we launched a project to prepare evidence-based guidelines for the management of acute cholangitis and cholecystitis that will be useful in the clinical setting. This research has been funded by the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare, in cooperation with the Japanese Society for Abdominal Emergency Medicine, the Japan Biliary Association, and the Japanese Society of Hepato-Biliary-Pancreatic Surgery. A working group, consisting of 46 experts in gastroenterology, surgery, internal medicine, emergency medicine, intensive care, and clinical epidemiology, analyzed and examined the literature on patients with cholangitis and cholecystitis in order to produce evidence-based guidelines. During the investigations we found that there was a lack of high-level evidence, for treatments, and the working group formulated the guidelines by obtaining consensus, based on evidence categorized by level, according to the Oxford Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine Levels of Evidence of May 2001 (version 1). This work required more than 20 meetings to obtain a consensus on each item from the working group. Then four forums were held to permit examination of the Guideline details in Japan, both by an external assessment committee and by the working group participants (version 2). As we knew that the diagnosis and management of acute biliary infection may differ from country to country, we appointed a publication committee and held 12 meetings to prepare draft Guidelines in English (version 3). We then had several discussions on these draft guidelines with leading experts in the field throughout the world, via e-mail, leading to version 4. Finally, an International Consensus Meeting took place in Tokyo, on 1–2 April, 2006, to obtain international agreement on diagnostic criteria, severity assessment, and management

Development and psychometric properties the Barriers to Access to Care Evaluation scale (BACE) related to people with mental ill health

Many people with mental illness do not seek or delay seeking care. This study aimed to develop, and provide an initial validation of, a comprehensive measure for assessing barriers to access to mental health care including a 'treatment stigma' subscale, and to present preliminary evidence about the prevalence of barriers experienced by adults currently or recently using secondary mental health services in the UK

2013 WSES guidelines for management of intra-abdominal infections

Peer reviewe

Primary hyperparathyroidism: Its clinical pattern and results of surgical treatment in Hong Kong Chinese

Primary hyperparathyroidism has been increasingly diagnosed among whites since the advent of the biochemical autoanalyzer. However, the condition remains uncommon among Orientals. Our experience with 31 patients at the Queen Mary Hospital, University of Hong Kong, in the periods before and after we began to use the biochemical autoanalyzer was reviewed. The prevalence of primary hyperparathyroidism rose slightly from 3.1 to 3.7 per 100,000 hospital population. In both periods skeletal manifestation was the major clinical presentation, followed by hypercalcemic symptoms and urologic disease. Asymptomatic hypercalcemia occurred in three of 31 patients despite the use of biochemical autoanalyzer. Preoperative localization was carried out in 27 patients and was helpful in nine (33.3%) of them. The surgeon explored all four parathyroids, removed the diseased gland(s), and examined a biopsy specimen of one normal-appearing gland. There were 27 adenomas, two carcinomas, one four-gland hyperplasia, and one sarcoidosis. Twenty-eight patients had transient hypocalcemia after parathyroidectomy and required calcium supplements for variable periods. Before and after we began to use the biochemical autoanalyzer, there was a minimal change in the prevalence and clinical pattern of primary hyperparathyroidism seen in our hospital. In our experience, successful parathyroidectomy depends more on the surgeon's operative technique than on preoperative localization.link_to_subscribed_fulltex